In color ink jet printing, a relatively large quantity of ink is deposited onto the print media in a relatively short period of time. If this ink is not dried quickly, image quality can deteriorate due to ink droplet spreading, and the print media may wrinkle or cockle. In some cases, a printed image may be ruined by being rolled onto a take up reel on the printer after the image is printed but before the all of the ink is dry.
To help alleviate problems associated with variations in drying rates, methods of drying the ink during or after printing have been developed. Some of these methods involve beating various printer components with infrared radiation or by directing heated air onto the media. U.S. Pat. No. 6,361,230 for example, describes a printer with an attached dryer plenum that applies heated air to the media as it exits the printer. Dryers such as these have continued to suffer from various difficulties however. These problems include uneven temperatures across the media, a high temperature of the plenum itself, making it uncomfortable or even dangerous to touch, and inefficient operation.